Independent Dating
by AlwaysSandcastles
Summary: They are very independent people and like to spend their lives by winging it and having fun but when it comes to relationships they are both bad with commitment but why? They talk and discover why their relationship ended the way it did. Takes place in season 6 after "Baby talk" they reconnect the dots of why they broke up. Might be a one-shot!


I'm not sure if I want to continue this story into an actual date/feelings fic but after you read this let me know what you think. I quite like this idea of B/R dating in a platonic/friendship way but knowing that they never truly got over each other after their breakup those feelings they try to avoid will come back around. It could lead to something wonderful or another disaster which I hate seeing them go from still loving each other to completely unraveled.

Anyway, enjoy this might be a one shot I don't know.

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><p>"Ted really said that?"<p>

"Yeah!"

Barney and Robin are sitting on his couch after Robin chased out baby talk girl talking about what's been going on in their lives recently. After coming to the realization that she wasn't, or didn't feel needed in her relationship with Ted she decided to go ask Barney's opinion on this situation. He's the only other source that she knows that could give her an answer she needs to hear, Barney being her ex boyfriend and the most recently serious relationship she's had, knowing that she can talk to Barney and he will give her the answer she needs to hear in the only way Barney Stinson knows kind of way. And, now after getting that answer they are sitting down over some coffee and breakfast talking.

"Wow, Ted is a really needy person, he's probably the only real needy person I know. I can't believe he said that about you, he's not right and you have ever right to speak up about this whole Becky thing. Even if she's hot she's still quite needy and childish even I wouldn't act that way."

It's true, Barney can be childish as it was proven tonight with the whole "I can get laid talking like a little boy" act but when Barney's real and honest he's really a good person to talk to.

"Well, maybe he's right I mean I know I can be too independent." Robin has never been that person to rely on anyone or anything okay, maybe her job but that's just to keep a balance in her life. But, now realizing that being so independent can make men leave her.

"Hey, independence isn't a bad quality to have not everyone has to rely on someone else to get by in life. Sometimes being independent is a goof thing, even people who are in committed relationships don't always rely on the other person to get them through life. I'm glad you're this way Scherbatsky because not a lot of women I know, know what they want in life even if it means pushing someone they care about away." This hit home for her which made her think then ask him.

"Did I push you away? I know we ended our relationship mutually but did I become so reliable on you that I somehow pushed you away?" This was a hard question to ask him but they never really talked about the real issues in their relationship before and the way things ended so quickly between them was so quick that neither of them discussed their relationship in a proper way. They never got any closure after their breakup and Robin is beginning to realize that maybe it was her that started to rely on Barney too much which made him become the way he was when they broke up. Maybe, all this time since the breakup she let herself think that it was Barney who was initially the one who became something he wasn't. It's not like she wanted to change him, she loved(s) him the way he is but what if all this time she thought it was him pushing her away but it was her who pushed him away.

For the first time since their breakup Robin is beginning to understand that maybe she pushed away the one person who truly gets her, who loves who for her independence and isn't easily scared off by it. Maybe, she let the only good thing in her life go without really understanding why.

"Um, Barney. Are you okay?" Barney had been in daze while Robin was thinking about their relationship so he wasn't quite paying attention to the question she asked him or maybe he was just trying to think of the same answer to the question she was asking him.

"Yeah, I'm sorry what was the question?" Looking quite dissolved like a dear caught in the headlights of car, Barney just realized something for the first time in along time and that is that he wasn't the real reason why they broke up it was all because of her and relying on him too much for things.

"I asked if I was the one who pushed you away, so far away that it caused us to breakup over my being too reliable on you. Was that the real reason why we broke up or was there more reasons I don't know about?" She can tell by the way he's looking at her that he's now aware of something that is starting to become more real than anything else she ever realized.

"I love you for who you are, I never expected that you really needed me or wanted me to be more reliable because I love that you're independent enough to rely on yourself but to come to think about it." He paused and looked down at the coffee mug in his hands then looked back up at her. "Yeah, now that it's brought to my attention, maybe it was you who started to need me more and that freaked you out which made you run and us break up so fast." This hit both of them like a punch to the heart, neither of them realized until now that for a year, they had thought they broke up because he missed his old life or that she didn't need him enough but it was not those reasons at all.

"Wow, and to think we thought breaking up was for the best. Were we wrong to think that being together and committed was a bad idea. Were we too independent to think that relying on each other was slowly pushing each other away that we became fat and ugly, unrecognizable people?" They could laugh at this and go back to their single lives again or they can maybe try again both of them don't know what to do.

"I think we were who we were, we got too caught up in the traditions of monogamy and that's the real reason why we ended the way we did." It took Barney a while to fully understand this realization about their relationship but now he's really starting to think that their breakup was very immature and premature.

"I think that too, to be honest I didn't think breaking up was a bad thing but it both messed us up even more than we are. But, the breakup was more of a wake up call that I only now started to understand. God, are we too selfish to make a relationship last?" This is another realization that is starting to sting a little.

"I don't know, but maybe we're just too involved in what we witness around us. I mean, Marshall and Lily are the most reliable couple I know and they've been together since college but Lily's also quite independent and even being with Marshall it doesn't make her run from the relationship like we do. I admire them for being the traditional couple they are but do they have to rub it in our faces?" They both laugh at that one because it's true, sad but true.

"I guess we just have to work on that." Robin became silent for a while tuning out of anymore of this conversation but then Barney says something that makes this conversation more real, open and honest for the first time in along time.

"I know this might sound odd." Barney pauses to try to get the right words to express then says "it's going to sound weird but what if we go back a little and try dating to see where we went wrong the first time around because I think we missed our change to really become a couple we should be and not the couple we had become during that time. What do you say?" Barney is looking at Robin with a hopeful look on his face, the same look he had when they took that leap off the building together. It was the same hopeful look that he had for her and only her during their crazy, passionate and lovely summer. It's that look that makes her heart beat a little more faster every time he looks at her like that. It's a look that she only sees him give and it's a special and endearing look that makes her agree to do the things she does with him or for him.

It took a bit to let this question sink in because getting into a relationship again isn't what she wants right now but who know what will happen if they start to retrace the steps they were heading in when they were together, before all the reliable/independence broke them up. Maybe this will be a good start to something else, something more to explore between them.

"Okay, let's try dating, but only dating no sex or kissing." Robin, knows that if they decide to be more than platonic friends who date it's going to lead to something more and right now she can't do a relationship with anyone.

"I will try to be on my best behavior.'' He says with a wink and a smile, a smile that makes her want to kiss him which because it's them will end up in bed and she can't risk doing that without getting hurt or her hurting him and that's the last thing she wants to do.

"Then deal, we'll go out somewhere on Saturday." They highfive each other before she leaves his apartment.

"Maybe this isn't a bad idea... Challenge accepted!" Is the last words Barney says out lout but after she leaves. He hopes that this could be the beginning of something more but he doesn't want to risk it or rush things because he really wants to try doing this re-date thing with her.

"It's not a bad idea... Challenge accepted!" Or so they think or maybe it is more and they're both into deep.

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><p>So let me know what you'll think, I'm leaving this open ended which I quite like.<p> 


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